Polichinelle tells his Compère (Companion) that he has come into a private income and wishes to host a ball, but Compère explains that this income will barely be enough to buy a candle. A Turk arrives and gives sumptuous Grand Turk clothes to Polichinelle as well as the key to his seraglio. Polichinelle joins the women of the seraglio, his Compère sings a song and the play ends with a group of shepherds and shepherdesses dancing.

Rod and string marionette

Not specified

France

Paris

Manuscript

Enrichment

Foreigner

Ball

Money

Seraglio

Ballet

Comical

French

Polichinelle

The Interpreter

Turk

Sheperherdess

Change of social status

Final song

Dialogue with a character in the audience

Polichinelle Grand-Turc

Polichinelle Grand Turk

Polichinelle discovers that the theaters have been demolished. He has ordered a carpenter to make him new puppets but has no play to perform. The author Flonflon asks to be paid in advance, and Polichinelle beats him. Then four spectators come to see Polichinelle. The Compère (stooge) advises him to present a very short play. Polichinelle announces that he has two plot ideas: the relocation of the Comédie-Italienne and the wedding of the fairy Carabosse with Polichinelle. The play ends with a dance and a farce.

Carolet Denis

Printed

Life of the theatres

Playwright

Spectator

Relocation

Fair

Satirical

Author

Nurse

Mitron

Maid

Metadiscourse on puppet theatre

Dance

Blow-with-a-stick

Bawdy equivocation

L'Impromptu de Polichinelle

The Impromptu of Polichinelle

The fisherman Colin finds a golden vase in his nets. The genie Elemaliga is imprisoned inside it. As a gesture of gratitude for having delivered him, Elemaliga bestows magical powers to Colin. With this magical help, Colin triumphs over his rival Philippe, recovers the fortune he should have inherited and marries Lisbette.

Body shadows

Marion de Salins Pierre

Swindling

Wedding

Love

Fishing

Seduction

Inheritance

Fantasy

L'Heureuse Pêche, cover page

Comédie pour les ombres à scènes changeantes

Fisherman

Peasant

Genie

Apparition of a genie

Disappearance

Love rivalry

Song

Invisible character

L'Heureuse Pêche

The Happy Catch

Figaro argues with Suzanne, his wife, because he wants to open a puppet theater. He brings his ill daughter, Friquette, to Paris. She recovers thanks to Doctor Fluidas, a neighbor who accompanies her every day to magnetism sessions. She agrees to help her father in his new undertaking, while Suzanne refuses to be convinced. Friquette confesses to her father that she is in love with a young man. She is enamored with L’Enfumé (The Tricked One), a student physicist, whom she has not seen for four days. Upon L’Enfumé’s arrival in the city, Friquette blames him for his absence, but he explains that it is due to his preparation to fly in a balloon that has her name written on it in golden letters. Fluidas announces that doctors have forbidden his magnetism sessions because he is an impostor. After an accident with the balloon he was supposed to fly in, L’Enfumé is robbed of the money left from the subscription that he started for its construction. Figaro convinces everybody to join him in his puppet theater project.

Theatre

Magnetism

False doctor

Imposture

Gas balloon

Gascon

Flight

Scientific experimentation

E. D., Figaro, directeur de marionnettes, 1785.

Figaro

Physicist

Physician

Aria

Monologue

Argument

Comical regional accent

Revelation

Figaro, directeur de marionnettes

Figaro, puppet director

Rosalinde, dressed as a male student, enters Doctor Faust’s home and gives him a book of magical spells. As a consequence, Faust believes he is making a deal with the devil, but he is in fact the victim of a trick orchestrated by the young woman, who conspired with Faust’s houseboy – Hans Wurst. When Satan comes back at midnight, he tells Faust that he has no intention of keeping his promises, and that the poor man has sold his soul for nothing. And yet, he grants him a final trial, which could save him from Hell: Faust must resist the gorgeous Helen of Troy. But he gives in the moment that she appears to him. Rosalinde then reveals that she was both the devil and the beautiful Helen: it is to her that he has devoted his body and soul. The play ends with two weddings, as Rosalinde’s servant, Lisette, is Hans Wurst’s sweetheart.

Germany

Augsburg

Scholar

Sorcery

Madness

Humour

Professor

Gluttony

Doctor

Sophism

Devil

Joke

Morality

Woman

Parodistic

Title page of the play in Johann Scheible's Das Kloster (1847)

German

Faust

Hanswurst

Domestic servant

Student

Helen of Troy

Aside

Disguise

Cross-dressing

Sung scenes

Word for another

Chorus

Pact with the devil

Misunderstanding

Scene of recognition

Final wedding

Johann Faust oder der gefoppte Doktor

Johann Faust or the duped doctor

Guignol’s landlord – Vautour – complains about financial hardship, as his tenants do not pay the rent. He asks Guignol to settle the previous months of arrears, but Guignol ridicules him extensively and then refuses to pay. Gnafron helps Guignol get rid of Vautour. They both fear that Vautour will have Guignol’s furniture seized, and so they move it all before having a drink together.

Glove-puppet

Lyon

Rent

Debt

Scatology

Furniture

Farcical

Le Déménagement de Guignol. Lyon: Elardin, 1876 (couverture).

arrangé par Louis Josserand

Guignol

Gnafron

Landlord

Fight

Dialect as a social marker

Comic distortion of language

Trap

Le Déménagement de Guignol

Guignol’s Move

A young alchemist, Émile, and his assistant Guignol are preparing for their final experiment—to create a man. Instead of a man, however, a Monstre (Monster) rises out of the cauldron, scaring the two men as well as Émile’s fiancée, Amélie, the daughter of Baron de Valbreuze. Émile and Guignol go to a cemetery, where they are advised by a Squelette (Skeleton) to question an old Alchimiste (Alchemist), who can teach them how to get rid of the Monstre. The Monstre is devoured by ghosts and disappears. Guignol and Émile go back to the Baron and to his daughter, and the young couple signs a marriage contract.

Alchemy

Creation of a living being

Fear

Fantastic

Le Monstre et l'alchimiste, censorship archives (first page of the text)

Le Monstre et l'alchimiste

Alchemist

Monster

Skeleton

Undead

Word warping

Apparition of a monster

Graveyard scene

Dead talking character

Apparition of a ghost

Engulfment

Pyrotechnics

L'Alchimiste

The Alchemist

Guignol – a ragman – is upset as he finds nothing to resell. He comes across Gnafron, who is sleeping. Guignol is engaged to Louison – Gnafron’s daughter – but the three of them are lazy and penniless. They find a poster of the aeronaut Baloffet, who is about to take off for the Moon in a balloon and offers two thousand francs to whoever will go with him. Guignol volunteers and shares half of the advance on the reward with Gnafron. Louison is staying with her father and reproaches him for spending all the money he makes repairing shoes on wine. But the Bailli (bailiff) comes in and offers Gnafron twenty francs so that he shares with him the letters Guignol will send from the Moon. The balloon flies over a few forests then lands in the North Pole, before finally taking off for the Moon. Louison reads out Guignol’s first letter to the Bailli: Guignol is still on his way. On the Moon, the King and Queen attend a party where “mechanised dancers” are performing. Some guards bring in Guignol, who has just arrived. The King and Queen show him their wings. They are surprised to see that Guignol does not have any. They first consider putting him in a cage, but instead they ask him questions about life on Earth and how he travelled to the Moon. Guignol offers to establish business relationships between the Moon and the Earth. The King’s subjects revolt. Having been impressed by the gun Guignol carries, the King appoints him general-in-chief of his army. Guignol sends Baloffet back to Earth so that he brings Louison and Gnafron, who were already packing their things. Back on the Moon, Guignol has defeated the rebels, and he celebrates his victory by drinking wine. The Queen privately confesses her love to him. Gnafron and Louison have arrived on the Moon and come celebrate Guignol’s victory too. Gnafron is appointed as the King’s sommelier and the plays ends with a grand finale and a last verse.

Josserand Claude Louis François (aka Louis Josserand père)

Moon

Meals

Wine

Celebrity

Misery

Revolt

Guignol dans la Lune

Inhabitants on the moon

Bailli

Prime Minister

Aeronaut

Queen

Guard

Teichoscopy

Off-stage voice

Letter

Ellipsis

Apotheosis

Versified passages

Flying machine

Le Voyage de Guignol dans la Lune

Guignol travels to the Moon

The play is set during the annual Saint-Cloud fair, in the big alley where the fairground theatres are gathered. Cassandre, Paillasse and Jeannot, whom Arlequin meet, rejoice at the news of the return of Mère Gigogne – a well-known figure at the fair, who has what it takes to bring back the joyfulness needed for its success. Paillasse and Jeannot parade to attract people to the stall to see a show about a giant cockchafer and trained stink bugs. Arlequin comes up to a young girl, Jeunesse (Youth), and promises to buy her a reed flute and gingerbread. The audience leave the stall, furious about having been misled, since the show never began. Mère Gigogne, followed by a large procession, appears and dances, giving birth to many children. She blesses the marriage between Arlequin and Jeunesse. The show ends with a sung vaudeville.

Fairground

Birth

Show

Animal savant

Pierre-Louis Belfort-Devaux, La Foire de Saint-Cloud, 1853.

Cassandra

Arlecchino

People

Oration

Childbirth on stage

La Foire de Saint-Cloud

The Saint-Cloud Fair

Truitonne quarrels with her sister Florine – she is unhappy with her own name and reproaches her for being loved by everyone while she is despised. She would like to inflict pain on others and to be loved anyway. Their godfather Enchanteur Rotomago (Sorcerer Rotomago) announces that he would like them to marry: Truitonne with Prince Charmant (Prince Charming) and Florine with himself. Gilles, Prince Charmant’s servant , comes in and announces Prince Charmant’s arrival, but at first the characters mistake him for his master. When Charmant arrives, he immediately notices Florine, while Rotomago tries to draw attention to Truitonne. A Fée (fairy) steps in to warn him that Florine is the woman he must love. Rotomago bribes Gilles so that he helps him set up a trap. He will have Charmant believe that Florine has asked to see him. But taking advantage of the dark, they will make Truitonne come to the rendezvous instead. Thus, Truitonne poses as Florine and Charmant gives her a ring as a token of his love. As he believes that he is speaking to Florine, Charmant wishes out loud that a devil would carry her sister away, and his wish is fulfilled – a devil carries Florine away, but Charmant launches himself after her. Once at the cemetery, Charmant and Gilles meet an apparition of her that tells them that Florine is still alive. Rotomago asks Charmant to marry Truitonne, and when he refuses, he punishes him by changing him into a bird for seven years. Florine is made captive in a tower under the supervision of Gilles, who has them believe that Charmant died of sorrow and of an indigestion of rum babas. A blue bird (Oiseau bleu) enters her room, and Florine understands him to be Prince Charmant. He takes hold of a cane and hits Gilles. Rotomago, Truitonne and Gilles go after Oiseau bleu. The latter comes back to Florine and receives a letter brought by a Bourdon (bumblebee), in which he is told about an attack on his kingdom. Gilles glimpses Oiseau, shoots him with a gun then puts him in a magical coach that takes him to his own castle. There, he convinces the Seigneurs (lords) of his court to let him lead an army to battle. Rotomago appears and offers to give him back his human form on condition that he marries Truitonne. Charmant agrees in order to protect his subjects. As Charmant and Truitonne’s marriage is about to be celebrated, a Génie (Genie) appears with Florine. He transforms the Enchanteur into a turkey and convinces Gilles and Truitonne to marry, while Charmant will marry Florine.